Means for preventing fraudulent alteration of documents



June 9,'1942. w. s. CLOSE MEANS FIOR PREVENTING FRAUDULENT ALTERATION yOF DOCUMENTS Fiied Nov. 2, 1940 Pwr/Kantou 7: mon" 2 19a mo .mv x r 252 Patented June 9, 1942 poli-'reoA` stares parsim- @FFI CTE-if MEANS-` Foe PREVENTING FRAU- Dugan ALTEEATION OF; DOCUMENTS f Wilmot Sirolose, Mountain Lakes, J application November 2, 1940,SerialrNo. 363,972?` 2 Claims.

This application is arcontinuationin part of my application Serial No. 187,578 filed January 29, 1938, that is a continuation in part of my l The present application relates particularly to the check blank, and one object of theinventicn herein described and claimed is to provide` a novel and improved means for reducing the possibility of alteration without detection, of certaininscriptions on the document, for example the amount of the check and the name of the payee.

Another object is to provide such means wherein the portion of the document to receive an inscription shall be partially mutilated, serrated, slitted or roughened in a novel and improved manner so that an inscription can be made thereon by pen and ink, a typewriter or printing machine but practically cannot b-e altered or obliterated without detection.

An important feature of the invention is the provision of a surface on a document to receive an inscription of such character that the inscription can be written over the surface after the latter has been formed, in contrast to writing the inscription and then mutilating or serrating the surface bearing the inscription by a check protecting machine or the like, the invention thereby affording adequate protection against fraudulent alteration of the document without the necessity of using a check protecting machine or the like.

Another feature is the provision of such a protecting surface as a part of the manufacture of the document or check blank, for example, simultaneously with the printing of the check form, so that the inscription is protected automatically as it is written and without additional operations or effort on the part of the writer.

Other objects, advantages and results of the invention will appear from the following description in conjunction with the accompanying drawing in which Figure l'is. a .plan View: 0f ,a Check? embcdyina theinventionL Figure 2s a. greatly Ienlarged fragmentarypiani-view of the ,mutilated or protected portionof the check.-y

Figure 3 is a sectional` View or 1 the line 3,3-

of Figure 2, and,`

Figure 4 is a greatly magnieddragmentary sectional View of the protected portio nof;the`

check.

As usual, the-document,- such as a check, preferably comprises a\sheet l of brousmaterial such as paper that has ra surface of -acharacter to receive an inscription-in; ink, and lhas certain inscriptions printed, thereon, forY example thename of the maker of the, checkas indicatedl'at 2, and the name ofthe bank upon which the ,-7

check is drawnv asindicatedat 3. Also,` preferably each check blank has a espace 4to Areceive f inscriptions identifyinginvoices of which the check is payment, or anyother suitable data.

In accordance with the invention, it is intended that certain inscriptions on the check, for example the amount of the ch-eck, the name and address of the payee, shall be written by a typewriter or printing machine so as to produce a clear carbon copy of such inscriptions on another sheet, for example a cash book page. As shown on the drawing, the check blank has a space 4l", to receive an inscription representing the amount of the check, a space 6 to receive the name of the payee, and an additional space 1 to receivev an inscription in figures representing the amount of the check.

To reduce the possibility of certain of these inscriptions, such as the amount of the check and the payees name, being altered or obliterated after the inscription has been made, I contemplate mutilating, roughening, serrating or slitting the areas or Zones of the face of the check which are provided to receive said inscriptions. As shown on the drawing, these areas or Zones have a plurality of transverse closely spaced narrow and approximately parallel indentations, grooves, depressions, slits or incisions 8 that at least partially penetrate the sheet of which the check is formed so as to at least break, cut or roughen the surface of the sheet so that the ink of the inscriptions will permeate and be diffused in the sheet in and immediately adjacent the depressions, grooves, indentations, slits or incisions, and frictional rubbing of said areas or Zones will tend to disintegrate the paper or other material of which the check is formed, as more clearly shown in Figure 4 of the drawing,

the breaking or roughening of the surface of the sheet deforms, `dislocates or separates certain of the fibers and causes them to project from the surface of the sheet in the closely spaced areas bearing the indentations or incisions 8, while the portions I of the surface of the sheet between said areas is smooth and the bers thereof are undisturbed; and the smooth portions I0 of the surface permit an inscription to be easily and legibly written in ink, while the ink will be diffused in the broken surface and along the projecting fibers in the depressions or incisions. Preferably the grooves, indentations, etc. are linelike and extend obliquely downwardly from the left to the right whereby there will be a minimum tendency for a pen point to become caught in the grooves or indentations during writing of the inscription, and also to ensure that the depression shall be transverse of vertical portions of letters of inscriptions so that such vertical portion, for example, the leg of an h, does not coincide with a depression and thus become illegible. It is desirable that the indentations, grooves or incisions be ycolored in contrast to the color of the ink used in the inscription as well as in contrast to the color of the face of the check and this may be easily effected during and as a part of the operation of printing the check blank.

Preferably the protected zones 8 are wider or longer, or both wider and longer, or have greater over-all dimensions than any inscription that might be written on said Zones, either by pen and ink, typewriter, check protector or check Writer, whereby any attempt to obliterate by the impression of a check writer or check protector an inscription written in pen and ink or by typewriter, could be easily and quickly detected by the portions of the protected zones extending and exposed beyond the inscription.

The inscriptions 9 may be written on the mutilated and protected zones with a pen and ink, or ordinary typewriter or other printing machine, and are clearly legible. However, the ink of the inscriptions tends to run along the bers on the surface of the check that are deformed or severed by the indentations, grooves, or incisions so as to make obliteration of the inscriptions practically impossible, and also the bers on the surface of the check are so deformed or severed that frictional rubbing of the zones of the check carrying the indentations or incisions will result in tearing away portions of the surface of the check or further deformation or severing of the fibers, so that any attempts at alterations of the inscription may be easily and quickly detected.

Accordingly, it will be observed that the inscriptions will be automatically protected against alteration immediately upon making of the inscriptions, and no further operations, or machines or devices such as check protectors, are required.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

1. As an article of manufacture, a sheet of fibrous material having a face to rreceive inscriptions in ink, the zone of said face intended to receive an inscription having its surface in closely spaced areas broken and certain of the fibers dislocated and projecting therefrom in said areas, the portions of said surface between said areas being smooth so that an inscription can be legibly written in ink in said zone and ink will be diffus-ed in said areas, whereby to render alteration of said inscription without detection practically impossible.

2. The article of manufacture set forth in claim l wherein said closely spaced areas are linelike and approximately parallel to each other.

WILMOT S. CLOSE. 

